1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of alert management for computing events and more particularly to user interface alert bubbles for computing events
2. Description of the Related Art
Alert management in a computing system refers to the alerting of an end user through a user interface of a computing application of a computing event. Computing applications and systems often encounter computing events worth noting on the part of the end user. Historically, alerting an end user of a computing event required the suspension of an executing application and the presentation of text or a visual display notifying the end user of an alert condition. While effective in a computing environment in which only a single application can execute at a time, for multi-tasking environments, it is not reasonable to permit the interruption of all applications to present an alert.
In traditional windowing operating systems that provide multi-tasking functionality, alert management is incorporated into the operating system itself. In this regard, the operating system can provide an application programming interface (API) for invoking alerts through the operating system user interface. Often in the form of an alert box or an alert balloon, an alert can be provided by invoking a suitable operation through the alert management API. The alert itself, can be raised from a task bar or other similar such user interface structure.
In an activity-centric collaborative computing environment, alerts often are generated whenever an object within an activity becomes manipulated or managed in some meaningful way, by another user or by the action of the user's own system or a remote system. Alerts can be generated and delivered to individuals associated with an object (members), for instance when a member opens the object, when a member modifies the object, or when a member creates a child of the object. As will be recognized by the skilled artisan, alerts are ephemeral in nature and persist in the end user display only for a few moments. During the brief display of an alert, an alert recipient may take one of several actions with regard to the contents of the alert. These actions may include opening the object that is referenced in the alert, rating the desirability of viewing like alerts, or dismissing the alert.
Of course, if the user fails to notice an alert, perhaps because the user is not present during the presentation of alert, or because the user becomes distracted, the user may miss a vital piece of dynamic information. This problem may be mitigated by making each alert persistent until explicitly dismissed by the user, but this solution leads to further problems, such as a screen that is cluttered with alert messages, and the requirement that the user interrupt her/his on-going work to dismiss the alerts.